Replacing Dropbox with BitTorrent Sync

[Edit: December, 2015 – Since BitTorrent Sync hit 2.x, I’m no longer using it and I can no longer recommend it.]

Too many times, you’ve heard a cloud storage/sync product described as “like Dropbox.” There’s Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Bitcasa, SpiderOak, Wuala, Transporter, and I’ve missed a bunch. It doesn’t matter because they’re all pretty bad, and nearly all have the same problem, which is that any data you upload can be decrypted by the provider. In the event of a bug or a breach, anyone could have access to your files.

BitTorrent Sync draws the inevitable comparison, but it’s different and better. It lets you sync folders between multiple machines, and it supports every major computing platform, but it works without a cloud component. It’s peer-to-peer, encrypted, and fast. Sync is in beta, but I replaced Dropbox with Sync over five months ago, and it’s been great. The most recent version even handles syncing OS X extended attributes with an intermediate Linux peer.

I’ve been using Sync to publish files to the web, replicate a Minecraft server, sync personal documents between my computers, access files on the go with my iPhone, automatically upload security camera footage offsite, and even back up my iPhone’s camera roll to a home computer. It works.

Sync makes ad-hoc sharing easy, with expiring and optionally read-only links. It’s one of the easiest and fastest ways to share large files.

The most intriguing feature of BitTorrent Sync is its ability to include peers that can sync without having a decryption key. I’ve taken advantage of that feature to keep a copy of my documents synchronized with my own cloud server. On that server, the file contents, names, and metadata are encrypted and I feel reasonably secure knowing that if someone hacked the server, my tax returns and security camera footage would remain private.

Sync is hard to get right, and BitTorrent Sync is impressive. On my wishlist: Hosted plans for folks who need the always-on aspect of cloud storage and can’t roll their own, and a Dropbox-compatible SDK for mobile app developers.